Folger in Washington Survives Its Own Drama

By ANDREW L. YARROW, Special to the New York Times

Published: October 15, 1987

The Shakespeare Theater at the Folger Library in Washington has had more than its share of offstage drama in recent years. But two years after a tumultuous struggle to remain open, the popular Capitol Hill institution appears to have made a remarkable creative and financial recovery.

The theater began its 18th season last week with ''The Witch of Edmonton,'' a Jacobean drama based on an actual incident in 17th-century England, and Robert Linowes, chairman of the theater's board of directors, and Michael Kahn, its artistic director, have ambitious plans for its future.

The 253-seat Elizabethan-style theater was built in 1932 as part of the Folger Shakespeare Library, which was founded by Henry Clay Folger, an Amherst College alumnus and oil industry executive, and is administered by Amherst's trustees. The theater had stood empty, except for occasional Amherst productions, until 1970, when regular productions began thanks to the efforts of O. B. Hardison Jr., the new director, who persuaded the college to open the institution to the community. In the next 15 years, the mix of Shakespeare and new plays made the Folger a favorite of Washington theatergoers.

So when it was reported in January 1985 that Amherst's trustees were planning to close the theater because of more than $2 million in accumulated deficits, ''it caused a tremendous uproar in the community,'' said Mr. Linowes, a Washington lawyer. Several prominent people organized efforts to rescue the theater -among them, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, Elizabeth Hanford Dole, who was then the Transportation Secretary, and Mr. Linowes. Theater Was Incorporated

''I set down a series of conditions,'' Mr. Linowes said in an interview in Washington, recalling a tense 1985 meeting with Amherst's trustees. ''Amherst had to agree to $200,000 in support for two years, and we would set up the theater as an independent organization.''

Amherst and the library were cast as the villains, but they got ''a bad rap,'' according to Dr. Werner Gundersheimer, the library's director. ''The recommendation was not to close the theater but to discontinue the acting company,'' he said in an interview in Washington.

After long negotiations between Folger supporters and the Amherst trustees, the theater was incorporated as an independent entity in June 1985 and Michael Kahn was hired as the artistic director in 1986. In the last two years, the renamed Shakespeare Theater at the Folger (previously known as the Folger Theater) not only staunched the losses but also embarked on a creative renewal under Mr. Kahn.

The 47-year-old Brooklyn-born director, who also serves as chairman of the Juilliard School's acting department and artistic director of New York's Acting Company, was no stranger to either Shakespeare or struggling theaters. In 1966, Mr. Kahn directed ''Measure for Measure'' in Central Park and helped turn things around as director of the financially troubled American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Conn., and of the McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J., during the 1970's. 'A Stage for Actors'

''I felt like my life had been setting me up for this,'' said Mr. Kahn in a recent interview at Juilliard. ''I had headed regional theaters but had stopped. I had always done Shakespeare in very large places, but the architecture influenced the style. At Stratford, there was a need for pageantry. But my real interest has been in actors, and the Folger is a stage for actors. And I'd begun to miss Shakespeare.''

In Mr. Kahn's first Washington season, his ''Romeo and Juliet'' attracted large audiences and used the subject of the play to focus on the crisis of teen-age suicide in a project with the Youth Suicide National Center. The program brought together teen-agers, parents, teachers and health-care professionals to discuss adolescent depression and suicide.

This season's schedule of productions also have a topical slant. Barry Kyle, an associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, who made his American directing debut with ''The Witch of Edmonton,'' said he chose the little-known drama as the season's first production because ''it deals, with grace and compassion, with people who have nothing.'' Play From 1621

The play, about a woman executed for witchcraft, was written collaboratively in 1621 by John Ford, Thomas Dekker and William Rowley. It is ''like an English 'Crucible,' '' according to Mr. Kyle, adding, ''It's about Puritan intolerance and homelessness, and it has a very strong feminist content.'' After its run in Washington, the production is to be presented at the American Place Theater in New York in December.

Later this season, Mr. Kahn will direct ''All's Well That Ends Well'' and ''Macbeth,'' and Michael Langham, a former director of Canada's Stratford Festival and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, will direct ''Coriolanus.'' ''In a year when the questions of governing and leadership are before us, it's not odd that we're doing 'Macbeth' and 'Coriolanus,' '' said Mr. Kahn.

As part of his effort to expand the theater's repertory of talent, Mr. Kahn has established a ''national advisory council'' that includes such well-known actors as Zoe Caldwell, James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer and Michael York. Mr. Kahn hopes that the council will not only provide advice but will also double as ''sort of a stable'' of actors for coming productions.

The Shakespeare Theater also is committed to increasing its role in community and training programs, said Mr. Linowes. It offers subsidized acting classes for minority actors and low-cost tickets for Washington schoolchildren and has started an informal internship program for students at Howard University. The theater also concluded a long-term agreement with the University of South Carolina, which is providing an annual subsidy as part of a program to bring drama students to the theater as apprentices and theater professionals to the university as teachers. More Cordial Relations

After the turmoil of 1985, relations between the library and the theater are cordial, according to library and theater staff. ''It was like a successful separation of Siamese twins,'' said Dr. Gundersheimer. ''The library has strengthened its collections and exhibitions, and the theater has benefited by not having to compete for support.''

''It felt like a divorce,'' said Mary Ann de Barbieri, the theater's managing director. ''But the theater has become stronger since the break with Amherst.''

Although hurdles remain, Mr. Linowes plans to expand the theater's activities by acquiring or building a 500-to-700-seat theater in Washington and introducing free summer Shakespeare productions in Washington's Rock Creek Park.

But his pet project - which he hopes will bring the theater national recognition - has been to create an annual award for American contributions to classical theater. The first ceremony, co-sponsored by E. F. Hutton, will be held March 18 in Washington's lavish Pension Building. ''Broadway has its Tonys,'' he said, ''so what could be more appropriate than for the Shakespeare Theater to have a Will Award?''